Nothing imminent on the trade front — and some advice for the Sharks from Detroit

There’s enough smoke out there — the ongoing Dany Heatley saga, the latest rumors surrounding Phil Kessel — that I figured MAYBE there was a fire someplace.

So I called Doug Wilson — realizing full well that he would not say, “Yep, we’re trying hard to land that forward from Boston” as we know his policy when it comes to talking about another team’s players. He got back to me today and we agreed you could boil his response down to six words: Anything is possible, nothing is imminent.

We didn’t define imminent, but I think it’s safe to say those reports that something big is about to break are at the very least, premature.

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To recap, Wilson has made a couple things clear. One, Joe Thornton and Dan Boyle aren’t going anywhere. And, two, the GM sees no need to rush into roster changes beyond the third- and fourth-line alterations already made. What still matters most is how this team will perform in the playoffs and he sees that giving him until the 2010 trade deadline to get his roster lined up just so.

Beyond that? Well, though Wilson won’t spell out the extent of what he has in mind, he has suggested to at least a couple of us in the media that we talk with Jimmy Devellano, longtime hockey executive with the Detroit Red Wings with a previous tour of duty in the front office of the New York Islanders back in the Mike Bossy era.

I reached Devellano on Thursday and he pretty much re-created the Las Vegas conversation he said he had in late June with Wilson and Sharks CEO Greg Jamison.

“We were at the NHL awards and had a drink together,” Devellano said. “I initiated it.”

Devellano said he advised Wilson and Jamison to resist the temptation to break up the team.

“Just tweak it,” Devellano said he told the Sharks brass. “You’re a team that‘s been pretty successful over the years. Maybe there’s a player that can’t get it done, but the one thing you can’t afford to do is just break it up completely. My advice is just to hang tough. See if you can’t add a player here or there. You might have to eliminate a guy. But don’t break it up.”

Devellano, 66, has the credentials when it comes to advising teams dealing with playoff frustration. In 1978, the Islanders were conference champs and failed to win a playoff series; the following year, the Islanders were Presidents’ Trophy winners, won one round, then were upset by the rival Rangers; the year after that, the Islanders won the first of their four consecutive Stanley Cups.

“There were a lot of screams on Long Island: Fire the coach, fire Al Arbour. The team isn’t tough enough. The team isn’t this, the team isn’t that. What GM Bill Torrey did—he didn’t fire the coach. He tweaked the team – he traded Mike Kaszycki for tough guy Gordon Lane. It was a small deal really, but it turned out to be important.”

With Detroit, Devellano also saw the Red Wings win the Presidents’ Trophy in 2005-06, then get ousted in the first round of the playoffs. Three other times in the past 15 years, Detroit entered the playoffs as conference or division champs, then failed to win a single playoff series.

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For the most part, Detroit stayed with its game plan. One season, Devellano said, they did revamp things by going out and signing big-name free agents Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille after season-ticket renewals plunged. But with today’s CBA and salary cap, that kind of move isn’t really an option.

At one point, Devellano said, the Red Wings did consider trading their captain, Steve Yzerman, to Ottawa. The deal never happened because Detroit didn’t think it was getting fair value in return. Instead, Coach Scott Bowman ended up convincing Yzerman that he needed to take care of things in his own end even if it meant sacrificing offensive numbers.

That does have bearing for the Sharks today as they deal with pressure to trade key players, Devellano said.

“OK, get rid of them,” Devellano said. “But you better be sure you’ve got someone as good or better coming back. They may not be perfect, but they’re still pretty good players. You don’t finish in first overall if they’re bad players.”

Devellano said fans and the teams themselves are too quick to dismiss the significance of winning the Presidents’ Trophy.

“When you win the Presidents Trophy, there’s not enough credit given to the team. That’s league-wide,” he said… “I guess that’s because we give so much attention to winning the Stanley Cup. But it’s not accurate and it’s not fair. The team that finished at the top of the league is a pretty good hockey team. (Stuff) can happen in the playoffs. A lot of (stuff) can happen.”

Devellano said he knows that Wilson and the Sharks are feeling a lot of pressure because of past playoff failures. That doesn’t change his basic advice:

“See if you can’t add a player here or there. You might have to eliminate a guy. . . . But stay the course. Don’t be ripping the guts of the team out. It wasn’t an accident to win the Presidents’ Trophy. We had a good team in Detroit and you finished ahead of us.”

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

See ya JR….nice career. Hope we don’t see you around….go broadcast in Philly or back east.

Phelpsphanphive

WOW. Detroit signed Eaves for 500k! How idiotic do you have to be to pass up on that? Even if SJ had to give him 900k to sign, it would still be a bargain because he’s worth more than that, just he’s accepting less because he got bought out.

For god sake, WE’RE PAYING SHELLY MORE THAN DETROIT IS PAYING EAVES.

What’s the difference?

Eaves will score for Detroit in the playoffs. Shelly won’t.

Just another example of Doug Wilson passing up a player the Sharks could use, and then either Detroit, Anaheim, or whoever mopping up his mistakes, and taking the player.

This was the biggest no brainer of the offseason. For god sake, DW is paying Nichol more than Eaves! He could have just gotten Eaves instead! UNBELIEVABLE.

Can someone please explain to me waht is wrong with this man’s mind? How can he not see these things clearly? They are not complicated.

GDub

#266 – DumbPuck

Too funny. How many times does someone’s faulty arguments have to get slammed in their face before they realize how funny they look after a certain point and stop posting? Apparently, the answer is infinity. Unfortunately, your well constructed rebuttal will get completely ignored and/or reworded. Regardless, it does about as much good as explaining physics to a giraffe. No offense to giraffes of course.

The truth is, Cheechoo is a decent gamble for 3 mill a year for any team willing to take it. I don’t really feel like looking it up, but I’d bet the list of players who are still under thirty, who have won a Rocket Richard trophy within the last four years, and who can be had for 3 mill/year is probably not long. The problem for the Sharks, and why I won’t entirely mind him gone, is that, unfortunately, thanks to health, he IS a gamble. If the guy is healthy and he gets on a line that can get him the puck in scoring positions, he can finish. You can’t score 56 goals in one year in the NHL if you can’t finish, and it doesn’t just go away at 29 for no reason. Scoring 56 may be a career high as teams learn not to let him float in the slot, but he can still finish. Hence, the guy is a good gamble.

And lastly, why in god’s name would she compare Cheechoo to Holmstrom (incredibly ineffectively I might add). The only thing their game’s have in common is that both look like they might fall down at any moment.

George

I have never seen so many articles discussing a future trade as Heatley to the Sharks. A trade that may never happen.
I realize it is early August, but nobody has anything else to talk about?
The latest: Ross McKeon on Yahoo Sports, with pictures no less!

Evilducks

“This was the biggest no brainer of the offseason. For god sake, DW is paying Nichol more than Eaves! He could have just gotten Eaves instead! UNBELIEVABLE.”

Except that when Nichol was signed Eaves was still under contract with Carolina.

I guess this is a no brainer if you’re clairvoyant. Not that his 14 points in 74 games is somehow a no brainer (+3 points in 18 playoff games)… Nichol had 10 points in 43 games. Or that one plays right wing and the other is a center…

Hey, Marty Biron signed for only 1.4 mil instead of 5 mil… we should have gotten him to play 4th line center instead!

little sieve

From the Arizona Republic:

The leaked confidential filings say Reinsdorf has asked for a special taxing district to be created in the district that would provide as much as $23 million next fiscal year through a “voluntary” surcharge on retail sales.

Additionally, if the team were still losing money after five years, Glendale would have to pay Reinsdorf $15 million for each year of losses or allow the team to be sold and relocated, according to Moyes’ filing. There was no indication that Glendale officials had agreed to any of these conditions, nor has a City Council meeting to approve such a deal been scheduled.

You can understand how a bidder for a team on the verge of relocation might be embarrassed by the public disclosure of an out clause for the franchise in five years.

Finally, if you’re into the behind-the-scenes intrigue of this case, Sarah Fenske of the Phoenix New Times has a startling, lengthy piece that explores just how far back Reinsdorf’s interest in this team goes and how far the city manager appears willing to go to hand the Coyotes to Reinsdorf and lobbyist John Kaites. Based on the info in the article, there are a ton of questions that need answered about favoritism and business relationships with these bidders.

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what a joke. the team lost $60 mill last year, the league had to bail it out, and the new arena is located in the worst possible place, away from the few fans they did have. face it, the team will continue to be a drain on the league for years to come if it stays in Phoenix.

Evilducks

Well, the team will continue to be a drain on the league if it continues to remain in Glendale. Building the stadium out there was absolutely stupid. They had a decent fan base when they were still in the heart of Phoenix.

Phelpsphanphive

Evil,

you are truly an idiot. Truly. What I’m talking about is value. Whichever team gets the most value out of their 56mil cap payroll will have the best team. So if Detroit gets more value for 500k than we get for 700k, that means we’re alraedy behind them. That means we have to make that difference up somewhere. Yet they’re also getting more value almost all across the board… Franzen for 3.75mil per season, they’re getting more value for the money they pay Zett and Datsyuk too in the playoffs. Even for just 1mil a year they are getting more valuable goaltending than we are for 6mil per year. All that adds up until you get to 56mil and Detroit overall has more value.

It doesn’t matter who signed first. Nichol was a bad value contract that should never have been given. And even if we signed Nichol, fine, you can sitll sign Eaves. You said it yourself one’s a center and one’s a winger. We need wingers more than centers anyway.

We should have signed Biron, as a goaltender. Would you honestly rather have Nabby at 6mil than Biron at 1.4? If you would you’re delusional.

WE COULD HAVE GOTTEN BIRON, BOYNTON, AND HOSSA FOR THE MONEY WE’RE SPENDING ON NABOKOV, HUSKINS, NICHOL, AND SHELLY.

Biron’s 1.4mil cap hit + Boynton’s 1.5 + Hossa’s 5 = 8mil cap hit

Nabokov’s 5.35mil + Huksin’s 1.7 + Shelly’s .725 + Nichol’s .750 = 8.5mil cap hit. So we could have had those other guys for 500k less even.

If you don’t like Hossa, we also could have basically gotten Cammalleri.

Don’t tell me we wouldn’t be a better team with either Cammelleri or Hossa and Biron in goal instead of Nabokov and Shelly/Nichol.

And that’s just what we would end up with if we gave away Nabokov and Shelly for free. In reality we could probably get a good prospect and a 2nd or 3rd round pick for Nabokov, and maybe a 7th round pick for Shelly.

So what we really could have gotten instead of Shelly, Nichol, Nabokov, and Huskins is this:

1 good prospect for Nabby, a 2nd/3rd round pick for Nabby, a 7th round pick/nothing for Shelly, Nick Boynton (who is > Huskins), Biron (who is as good or better in the playoffs than Nabby), and either Mike Cammalleri or Marian Hossa.

There, evilducks, I spelled it out for you in simple terms.

It’s all right there. You’d have to be seriously impaired mentally to keep arguing. It’s a lost cause. You can’t argue facts. It’s right there. The numbers are all there, the example uses players who we could have gotten. It’s all right there. The FACT is that we could have gotten Boynton, Cammalleri/Hossa, and Biron for similar money as we’re currently paying Nabokov, Huskins, Shelly, and Nichol.

The only part that’s debatable is whether we would get a prospect and a pick for Nabokov. But that’s irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if we get anything for him. We could waive him, give him away for nothing, and we still would have ended up with the players I mentioned if DW actually THOUGHT THESE THINGS THROUGH like I do.

It’s not complicated. It is extremely simple for me. There is nothing extraordinary about it. I AM NOT A GENIUS BECAUSE I CAN SEE THESE THINGS. I truly am not. They are so unbelievably simple. It’s just that you are extremely stupid. You’re not average intelligence, and I’m not a genius. I am average intelligence, and you, DW, whoever else can’t see the simplicity in all of this, is just plain stupid. Flat out idiotic.

It’s so simple, yet DW continues to screw it up.

Tom C

Is there a way to block certain responders (yes, sure, they can use different IDs if everyone starts blocking them), but I sure would like a way to skip over the worthless amateur posts. Thx

little sieve

right. and that is not a bid by Reinsdorf, it is nothing but a blackmail tax on local folks. either the city agrees to tax people to death, or Reinsdorf gets repaid, takes his toys and goes home.

Evilducks

PPP: You’re a genius, go apply for a job as GM somewhere, I’m sure they’ll love your philosophy in Tampa, it’s essentially the exact thing they did last year. Waive and ditch players for little to nothing so they could sign every free agent on the market. How’d that work out for them?

Evilducks

Sieve: Yeah, good move by Reinsdorf though, can’t really fault him for protecting his investment if the city is going to allow him to milk them for every penny their worth.

rogrrr

Gdub: “And lastly, why in god’s name would she compare Cheechoo to Holmstrom (incredibly ineffectively I might add). The only thing their game’s have in common is that both look like they might fall down at any moment.”

LOL! I love Cheechoo. But I don’t think Coach does. Why else would he see limited min and practically none on the PP in the playoffs. Anyone remember Tony Tanti when he played for the Canucks? Scored over 40 goals a few times, still holds the OHL record for most goals by a rookie-’80-’81, prev. held by none other than Gretzky. But Tanti had one problem that he shares with Cheechoo- lead feet. So he spent much of his career in the slot deflecting shots and taking a pounding night after night. I realize that Cheechoo is not soft but perhaps he needs to spend more time just trying to deflect the puck on net…still, for me, the Shark highlight of the Duck series was his amazing goal in Game 3(?) But I don’t see him in a Sharks uni this season if TM isn’t going to play him…

Evilducks

“Biron’s 1.4mil cap hit + Boynton’s 1.5 + Hossa’s 5 = 8mil cap hit

Nabokov’s 5.35mil + Huksin’s 1.7 + Shelly’s .725 + Nichol’s .750 = 8.5mil cap hit. So we could have had those other guys for 500k less even.

If you don’t like Hossa, we also could have basically gotten Cammalleri.

Here goes that hind sight is 20/20 BS you constantly pull. If a GM was clairvoyant they could have put this together themselves (you’ll note that all of these players went to different teams, so not even their GM’s are as smart as you apparently)

Biron was demanding 5 mil for several years at the start of free agency, so when we would have signed Hossa on day 1 (note that bidding on him would have raised his cap hit, we don’t exist in a vacuum). We force Nabokov out for a guy just as high priced and choke inclined? Genius.

So, Hossa decides he wants to play in Chicago over us, because there is plenty of evidence that Chicago is willing to pay stupid amounts of money to get the UFA’s they want over other bidding teams (see: Huet and Campbell). Great, no Hossa or his busted shoulder, and we go for Camelleri and get him at 6 mil? What does this gain us exactly. We’ve ditched our goalie and have no replacement and have another soft winger who disappeared in the playoffs and was invisible for the second half of the season. It’s like Michalek for twice the price.

Boynton, big deal, don’t really care. I saw Huskin’s name pop up more on pre-UFA news than Boynton. Again, it requires clairvoyance to wait him out and let his price drop. I haven’t seen either of them play much, but niether have jaw dropping numbers.

It’s easy to analyze things after the fact, ignore dates things occurred, ignore the fact there are other teams bidding on players, ignore where players want to be, etc.

The last time I saw you give suggestions about who we should get you brought up Zubov and Forsberg for practically the league minimum.

You also said we could get Heatley for peanuts (Cheechoo, Ehrhoff and a first anybody?).

You’re calling me an idiot but you think that you can mix and match all the deals that have happened knowing fully how things have played out and the minute you try to speculate or tell us what will be you are so far out of reality that you make the Birther idiots and 9-11 conspiratists look like Nobel prize for physics winners

Tano

Another week of watching paint dry and grass grow, as more exciting activities than waiting for news from DW…

GDub

Oh no! PPP has returned. I was enjoying only having to skip over Ocean’s nonsensical, illogical, lots-of-thought-but-misplaced-and-incongruous-thought, disturbingly-pompous-while-displaying-an-alarming-lack-of-insight posts.

Now I’m going to wear out another mouse wheel. Damn.

MikeGB

PPP:
Detroit can make these deals… Because they’re Detroit. Tell me exactly why Eaves comes here instead of a team that has made it to the SCF’s two years in a row, other than a measly 400k more.

There’s no sense in you calling people idiots either.

Evilducks

“There’s no sense in you calling people idiots either.”

It makes about as much sense as anything else he writes.

DumbPuck

…but it IS a lot shorter than everything else he writes, Evil…

GDub – That was one of the funniest run-on sentences I’ve seen here in a long time. Rather odd that she hasn’t been here to address her ludicrous argument\comparison…

Näslund

Ohh Ocean-Troll where are you?

Alaskan_ice

Evil, take a bow. these “know-it-alls” NEVER take into account that said players even want to play here. We can speculate all we want about Heatley because he says he WANTS TO PLAY HERE. Eaves never said he wanted to play here. How does anyone know if DW asked him to sign here? People need to understand that there is SO much more that goes on behind the scenes than all of us fans could put together on our best days.

ryan

why would they listen to the biggest competition they have in the west?

DumbPuck

No such thing, Alaskan Ice! You are talking sense in here and we all know that doesn’t fly!! The hateful trolls in here believe that every UFA player is like bargains at Wal-Mart – you can just grab what you want off the shelf and if you get it to the register first, you buy it!

Guess we know where they shop….

Alaskan_ice

DumbPuck, it actually hurts my brain to see some sense coming back my way!!! I find it somewhat humorous that my posts don’t get taken to task because I don’t attack others. Such is life, I guess.

http://canadiens.nhl.com/index.html Bob Gainey

Just send us Patrick Marleau and all your troubles will be over.
Sincerely,
Bob Gainey
GM Montreal Canadiens

http:nationalstudentloans.info Dallas Uzzell

Is this going to be the Blackhawk’s year for the Cup? Stay tuned; this playoff year is fantastic!

Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people need to read this and understand this side of the story. I cant believe youre not more popular because you definitely have the gift.